Thursday, June 26, 2008

Streusel-Topped Fresh Blueberry Muffins (Gluten Free, Casein Free)

I think the pictures can tell you more about these incredible muffins than I can.

I promise they taste as good if not better than they look. And they are not only gluten free, but casein free and soy free as well!

While these muffins do take a few extra steps to make. Trust me, they are worth it! I have not tried using them, but I am sure frozen blueberries would also work well. Just make sure the berries are sweet and not too sour (as some frozen berries can be!) Also make sure to either use the berries completely frozen or: defrost, rinse, and pat them dry before adding to the batter! Otherwise, you'll have purple batter, as I found out here.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, applesauce, rice milk, heart healthy oil or melted butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and fold just until combined. Fold in blueberries.

In another bowl whip egg whites until stiff. SLOWLY fold the whipped egg whites into the muffin batter. (If you still see streaks or clumps of egg white that is OKAY, it does NOT have to be completely incorporated!)

In a small bowl, mix together streusel topping ingredients. Sprinkle over unbaked muffins.

Bake for 18-25 minutes. Depending on the temperature of your oven, you may have to bake muffins longer. They are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If you hit a blueberry while testing it will stain your toothpick purple! As long as additional crumbs are not sticking to the toothpick the muffins are done!!

Hi, I am wondering if you could use buttermilk in place of the rice or soy milk in this recipe? How would that affect the outcome? Would I need to make any other changes to the recipe if I used buttermilk? Also, would these be good if I left off the topping or glaze? Thanks in advance for your feedback! -Lindsay

Hi Lindsey - I would recommend using regular dairy milk over buttermilk in these muffins - I think the buttermilk might make them taste sour -- but you're certainly welcome to use regular milk! :-) Let me know how they turn out!

I know that this is an old post and you are doing paleo but I just had to tell you that my son won a contest with this streusel. He wanted to do banana muffins and you know how gf baking can be iffy in the appearance (some days the same recipe that make beautiful muffins will turn out something that can only be described as ugly). Since the judges don't taste the food (fear of food poisoning), the stuff the kids make has got to be beautiful.

So I suggested a streusel topping and after just trying to make one up (and it failed, not sure if it was the coconut oil instead of butter) we just used this streusel. They looked wonderful and everyone who tried them, loved them. (We used a Carol Fenster recipe for the muffins because we had already tried and liked it and had limited experiment time.)

My hubby is the only GF person in his office, so he misses out on a lot of the goodies people bring in to share. I made these muffins for him to take to work to introduce his co-workers to delicious GF baking. Word from the man is - the muffins were a tremendous hit and I need to make them again. And again. And again. I only made a couple of alterations - subbed in dairy milk for the rice/soy milke and subbed half-and-half for the orange juice because I'm allergic to citrus and soy, and doubled the rice flour in the streusel and left out the oats because hubby can't even touch those. The smart side of my brain was working, so I made a double batch because I had a drooling teenager lurking around the kitchen asking when the muffins would be done (this, only after I'd measured out the dry ingredients). So, delicious muffins for everyone! And then I shared the link to this recipe on FB. Thanks! As my youngest offspring would say, "These are durrrrrricious!"

YAY!! That is awesome!! Wow! I love it when readers share the variations they make of a recipe! I'm so glad these turned out so beautifully for you and your whole family!! And to your youngest "durrrrricious" offspring! You rock!! Thank you so much!! (((((((((hugs!))))))))) Appreciate you taking the time to come back and comment!